It is that time of the year when information starts trickling in about the next generation tablets from the big guns. Not much has been revealed about the next generation iPad and iPad mini but the latest information making the rounds on the internet suggests that the next generation Nexus 7 tablet will go on sale as early as July.
The information on the Internet also suggests that the tablet will ditch the previously used Nvidia Tegra chipset for the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. It isn’t clear whether the tablet will have the S4 Pro or the Snapdragon 600 (or 800) but the shift to Qualcomm seems to be certain as per the sources. The second generation Nexus 7 will reportedly also feature a 1080p full HD display – something we can take for granted with the advances in high-res mobile displays.
The shift to Qualcomm comes as a blow to Nvidia, which is competing with Qualcomm in the mobile chipset space. Other players in the mobile chipset space also include MediaTek, ST-Ericsson, Marvell, Texas Instruments, Broadcom and Intel to name a few.
Google also has its annual I/O event in May and the search giant is expected to shed some light on the future of the Android OS (hopefully give us a glimpse of Android 5.0, Key Lime Pie) and an upgrade to the Nexus family of devices too is expected at the event. So these reports about the refreshed Nexus 7 cannot be discounted. It is also reported that Google plans to ship 8 million units of the second gen Nexus 7 in the second half of 2013.
In the 7-inch space, the Nexus 7 will face stiff competition from the iPad Mini, the next generation Kindle Fire tablet, Samsung Galaxy Tab and many more. The first generation Nexus 7 was launched at $199 and we speculate that the second generation Nexus 7 too will be priced the same.
Source: Reuters